Boronia tetragona

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Boronia tetragona
Status DECF P3.svg
Priority Three — Poorly Known Taxa (DEC)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Sapindales
Family: Rutaceae
Genus: Boronia
Species:
B. tetragona
Binomial name
Boronia tetragona

Boronia tetragona is a species of plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae, and is endemic to a small area of the southwest of Western Australia. It is an erect, glabrous, perennial herb with simple, sessile leaves and pink, four-petalled flowers.

Contents

Description

Boronia tetragona is an erect, glabrous, perennial herb that grows to a height of 70 cm (28 in). Its stems are more or less square in cross-section with a smooth, sharp rib on each corner. The leaves are sessile, elliptic to egg-shaped or triangular, up to 40 mm (1.6 in) long and have warty edges. The flowers are borne in umbels on the ends of the branches on a thin peduncle up to 20 mm (0.79 in) long, the individual flowers on a thin pedicel up to 10 mm (0.39 in) long. There are smooth, dark red bracts at the base of the flowers. The four sepals are dark red and about 3 mm (0.12 in) long. The four petals are pink with a darker midline, egg-shaped and about 7 mm (0.3 in) long with a rounded tip. The eight stamens have warty glands near the tip. Flowering occurs from October to December. [2] [3] [4]

Taxonomy and naming

Boronia tetragona was first formally described in 1998 by Paul Wilson and the description was published in Nuytsia from a specimen collected by Gregory John Keighery near Busselton. [5] [2] Wilson derived the specific epithet (tetragona) from the Greek words tetra meaning "four" and gona meaning "angle", referring to the four-sided branches. [2] Other sources give tessares (τέσσαρες) and gōnia (γωνία) as the Greek words for "four" and "angle". [6]

Distribution and habitat

This boronia grows in open woodland sometimes with sedges, between Capel and the Whicher Range in the Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain biogeographic regions. [2] [3]

Conservation

Boronia tetragona is classified as "Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife, [3] meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat. [7]

Related Research Articles

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<i>Boronia crenulata</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Boronia inornata</i> Species of plant

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<i>Boronia anceps</i> Species of flowering plant

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Boronia coriacea is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in the south-west of Western Australia. It is a small shrub with pinnate leaves and hairless pink, four-petalled flowers in small clusters on the ends of the branches.

<i>Boronia dichotoma</i> Species of plant

Boronia dichotoma is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect, slender perennial herb or shrub with simple leaves and pink, four-petalled flowers. The species is characterised by sticky glandular hairs on the pedicels.

Boronia exilis is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in the south-west of Western Australia. It is a slender, erect perennial with well-spaced, simple, more or less cylindrical leaves and pink, four-petalled flowers in groups of between three and nine on the ends of the branches.

<i>Boronia humifusa</i> Species of flowering plant

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Boronia interrex, commonly known as the Regent River boronia, is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is an erect, sometimes low-lying shrub with pinnate leaves, cream-coloured to pale pink sepals and pink petals, the sepals longer and wider than the petals.

Boronia minutipinna is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is an erect shrub with many branches, hairy stems and leaves, pinnate leaves and white to pink, four-petalled flowers with the sepals longer and wider than the petals.

<i>Boronia nematophylla</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Boronia pauciflora</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia pauciflora is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is an erect shrub usually with simple leaves and white to pink, four-petalled flowers.

<i>Boronia scabra</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia scabra, commonly known as rough boronia, is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an open shrub with simple, often clustered, oblong to elliptic leaves, and pink, mostly four-petalled flowers.

<i>Boronia tenuior</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia tenuior is a species of flowering plant that is endemic to Western Australia. It is an open shrub with thin, square stems, simple, serrated leaves, and pink to mauve, four-petalled flowers.

Boronia thedae, commonly known as the Theda boronia, is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is an erect shrub when young, later a prostrate shrub with many branches, pinnate leaves, four white to cream-coloured or pale pink sepals and four similarly coloured petals, the sepals longer and wider than the petals.

<i>Boronia tolerans</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia tolerans is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in the Northern Territory in Australia. It is an erect shrub with many branches, pinnate leaves and white, four-petalled flowers. It is only known from Nitmiluk National Park.

<i>Boronia virgata</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia virgata is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to the south coast of Western Australia. It is a virgate shrub with pinnate leaves with between three and five leaflets, and flowers with red sepals and deep pink, egg-shaped petals.

<i>Cyanothamnus westringioides</i> Species of flowering plant

Cyanothamnus westringioides is a species of erect shrub that is endemic to a small area in the southwest of Western Australia. It has simple, narrow, sessile leaves and pale pink flowers arranged singly in leaf axils.

Philotheca coateana is a species of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae and is endemic to Western Australia. It is a small shrub with small, elliptical leaves and white flowers with a pink midline, arranged singly on the ends of branchlets.

References

  1. "Boronia tetragona". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Wilson, Paul G. (1998). "New names and new taxa in the genus Boronia (Rutaceae) from Western Australia, with notes on seed characters". Nuytsia. 12 (1): 140–141. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 "Boronia tetragona". FloraBase . Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
  4. Duretto, Marco F.; Wilson, Paul G.; Ladiges, Pauline Y. "Boronia tetragona". Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  5. "Boronia tetragona". APNI. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  6. Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). A Greek-English Lexicon. Revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie.Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  7. "Conservation codes for Western Australian Flora and Fauna" (PDF). Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife. Retrieved 9 May 2019.